notes on worship at Sabbath house

Worship that is grounded in caring with and for God’s creation differs from the more traditional (and contemporary) worship found in most Presbyterian congregations. We want to offer a spiritual response to our present ecological crisis, and we are intentional in making a connection between our human selves and the “luminous web” of creation of which we are very much a part. This is something we know in our heads from both science and our faith traditions—but maybenot so much in our hearts. 

As Presbyterians, we share the common goal of caring for God’s Creation. Recycling, reduction in energy costs, and divesting from fossil fuels are part of our agenda. But, much of the time, our commitment is half-hearted. We need to experience a reconnection with Creation at a deep level. With this in mind, we design our worship and our work to help worshipers experience this reconnection—with God, with our selves, with one another, and with all creation—in our hearts andour heads. 

Part of being a NWC is the freedom to experiment and we’ve tried many different things. As humans who are part of the Earth, our worship honors our unity with the entire community of life as we circle the sun at a particular moment in time—whether we are entering into the phase of springtime renewal, summer ripeness, autumn inwardness, or winter pregnancy.
​
For our liturgy, sometimes we write our own; more often we borrow and piece together from whatever source we find with good liturgy and spiritual practices. These days, there are many including: 

• the Iona Community in Scotland; 
• a Methodist lay pastor in New South Wales who took it as a challenge to write Christian liturgies for the Celtic cross-quarter days because he wanted to connect with modern-day pagans; 
• the Forest Church movement; 
• the Cosmic Walk that helps us experience the story of the Universe from Genesis Farm in Blairstown; 
• and, of course, our own PC(USA) Office of Theology and Worship which gave us the beautiful Peacemaking and Ecology Communion Service, where we affirm Christ the Word that brought order to chaos; Christ the Eternal Light, shining from the dawn of creation to the daybreak of God’s eternal realm; Christ the Water the quenches our thirst; Christ the Bread that rises from the earth, feeding the poor and hungry, giving us wisdom and strength for each day.